The Sack of Non- Indigenes In Abia

Editorial

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State has unwittingly courted the wrath of many Nigerians by approving the disengagement of 3,000 non-Abia state indigenes from its public service. Although this is not the first time this will happen in a south eastern state, the acrimony this has generated shows that the exercise was carried out in bad faith and is capable of sending wrong and dangerous signals that do not augur well for the unity of this country.

The government of Abia state justified its action by saying many Abia indigenes who were displaced from the North due to the violent Boko Haram attacks needed to be rehabilitated and provided employment.

The other excuse is that the workforce had to be reduced to enable the government pay the new national minimum wage of N18,000. This same excuse of not being able to sustain the workforce with its lean resources was bandied about by military administrators of Enugu and Imo states in the 1990s when they massively retrenched non-indigenes of those states. As recently as 2004, erstwhile governor of Imo State, Achike Udenwa, also laid off non-indigenes of the state in the public service, giving a similar excuse.

And while Governor Theodore Orji is busy sacking non-indigenes, his counterpart in Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, is employing non-indigenes into political positions. There is belief in many quarters that Abia, one of the oil producing states in the country, could conveniently pay the minimum wage without any recourse to retrenchment of non-indigenes.

We believe that the retrenchment of non-indigenes from Abia public service will undermine the harmonious relationship that exists between Abia state and other Igbo-speaking states in the south east whose indigenes are mostly affected by the exercise which kicked off on 1 October this year.

It becomes even more worrisome if other states across the country decide to retaliate by sending non-indigenes packing from their public service.

Governor Orji should not play into the hands of those intent on destabilising his government. The Igbo, and indeed any Nigerian, should find every state in Nigeria, especially the eastern states, his home. Treating an Igbo man as a stranger or non-indigene in Abia state is the worst form of discrimination he could be subjected to in his own country. This xenophobic policy contravenes the provisions of our constitution which allows Nigerians to live anywhere in the country and earn a living without any discrimination on the basis of his ethnic nationality, religious creed or state of origin. Eminent Igbo sons and daughters, irrespective of their political leaning, should intervene in this matter before its backlash spins out of control.

The state government should come up with a better way of improving its internally generated revenue to enable it pay its workers’ wages. And if the workforce is too large and the government must retrench, those to be axed should not only be non-indigenes but also workers whose productivity has dwindled. Merit should be the criterion for retaining anyone and not discrimination on the basis of the person not being an indigene of Abia state.

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